At the top of the news, we showed you what Tourism Minister Anthony
Mahler had to say about the countdown to the reopening of the country's
land borders. Well, the opportunity to talk with Mahler came after a
BTB media luncheon at the House of Culture. He wanted to thank the
media for working as partners with the tourist industry.
It's no secret that sometimes the media's relationship with politicians
can get tense. Well, Minister Mahler said that he doesn't take it
personally:
Hon. Anthony Mahler - Minister of Tourism & Diaspora Relations
"The media is our partner, they educate Belizean population on all the
issues that we are confronted with and so we believe the media is an
important part of our democracy and to spread the word about tourism
and diaspora relations and the other agencies that fall under the
ministry and so we just wanted to thank the media for their work over
the last year or so."
Daniel Ortiz
"Now sir we shared a meal, tell us about the significance of that."
Hon. Anthony Mahler
"Well we broke bread and that's just to say we thank you that you are
our partners and that we are going to move into 2022 as partners, so we
wanted to sit down and hear what you have to say, how we can improve,
how you can improve and how we can improve our relationship together."
Daniel Ortiz
"What are your thoughts on maybe what you've seen in terms of the
coverage from the press. We have many persons who complain of the
quality, I'd like to hear your view on the coverage."
Hon. Anthony Mahler
"Well I've been dealing with this for the 25 years ago I had a media
summit at the Radisson and we sat and spoke about the same things,
sensationalizing crime and other issues like that, tragic events but
that's a part of the media and we've come to be more accepting of that
but I would wish that there would be a minimal number of those type of
reporting and more positive reporting but that is only my wish."
Prime Minister John Briceno hosted a similar breakfast event with the
press on Monday morning.